Untitled atm
by BoredumStrikes
Summary: The typical Lily and James story. Lily hates James because of his pranks, his arrogance and his obsession with her. She also blames him for the loss of her close friend. James, despite his friends encouragement to give up on Lily, can't stay away.
1. Memories

Chapter One:

Chapter One:

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any of the characters, story or the Harry Potter world in general. All of that belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm extremely glad she created it. A few of these come directly from the books, although partially paraphrased. A few are of my own thoughts. **

The swings creaked as a young red head threw herself off, landing on her feet. At the same moment a pale boy with long black hair quickly moved from behind the bushes, while saying "You're…you're a witch."

. . .

As the train sped along, six eleven-year-olds sat in a compartment. Four were huddled together, seemingly ignoring the other two, the red head and the pale boy, until a cheerful looking boy announced "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd rather leave, wouldn't you?"

The boy across the way responded "My whole family have been in Slytherin."

"Blimey and I thought you seemed all right," the first boy answered, his smiling never leaving his face.

Smirking, the second boy answered, "Maybe I'll break the tradition." The first boy began to speak about the house he wanted to be placed in, Gryffindor, but was interrupted by a snigger from one of the two in the opposite corner.

After a brief argument, the red head stood up and glaring at the four boys, turned to her companion and said "Come on Severus, let's find another compartment."

. . .

A girl with short blonde hair bounced over to the corner chair that contained the red head. Bouncing behind her was a tall brunette, with another dark haired girl following and staring at the ceiling as she walked.

"Hi! I'm Alice!" The blonde stuck her hand out in front of the red head. Nodding her head towards the brunette she said "And this is Marly and behind her is Dorcas."

The red head stood up from her chair and grasped Alice's hand, "I'm Lily."

. . .

Lily, now fourteen stood in the shower rinsing the conditioner out of her hair. As usual she had gotten up early in order to beat her four roommates to the bathroom. Still partially asleep she stumbled out of the shower and over to the mirror. Eyes closed she began to brush out the tangles in her hair. Sleepily she yawned and opened her eyes. Upon looking in the mirror she screamed.

"James Potter I'm going to kill you!"

Her glorious red hair was now a shade of green to match her eyes.

. . .

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She had just turned fifteen and she bore an expression of passionate hate.

The first boy from the train stood by her, wand raised. He had grown an impressive amount, although his hair was as unruly as it had been the first day she met him on the train. "Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you."

"Take the curse off him, then." Lily answered sharply.

Sighing, the boy turned and lifted the curse off her friend, Severus. "There you go, you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus—"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

. . .

"Go out with me Evans."

"Go away Potter."

"Not until you go out with me."

Whirling around the Lily looked James Potter, the same boy from the train, in the eyes and spoke her words with a deadly calm. "Potter, if you don't get out of my sight right now, you'll rue the day you were ever born into the world."

Forever smiling, James responded, "As you wish Evans. I have to meet Sirius anyway. We'll talk about our date later." Winking he turned and began to walk away.

"I wish you'd get it through your head I will never go out with anyone like you. I'd rather date a death eater." James paused, but never turned to look behind him, as he resumed his walk.

. . .

Standing in front of the Gryffindor entrance, Lily leaned with her back against the wall, looking distastefully at her friend, Severus.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not interested."

"I'm sorry."

"Save your breathe."

. . .

"Listen Lily, I'm sorry." Shocked, the red head looked up. She was yet again older, on the train just finishing her sixth year of school. She brushed her long bangs out of her face and stared at the boy standing in front of her.

"Potter, you're what?"

"I'm sorry. For everything. The pranks, pestering you all the time…" He seemed to stop and think for a second. "And for making you lose someone close to you." Lily was unable to form a sentence. "I hope that when we come back next year, we can start over, maybe be friends. Have a good summer, Lily." With that he turned and left her speechless in the train compartment.

. . .

Lily slowly opened her envelope, careful not the rip it in any way. Pulling everything inside out and placing it on her bed, she stared in awe at the shiny new badge with the letters HG on it.

. . .

All of these moments, these small increments of time, had led her to this. Lily took a breath as she hugged her parents good-bye and walked through the brick barrier, to the Hogwarts Express.

. . .

_Author's Note: I've written one or two chapters in advance of this, but I probably won't be posting them up right away. I'd really like to write a little more, just in case I go back and correct something. This story is a work in progress so bear with me and feel free to review._


	2. Head Boy & Girl

Chapter Two:

Chapter Two:

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any of the characters, story or the Harry Potter world in general. All of that belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm extremely glad she created it. **

Within seconds Lily spotted her circle of friends. Smiling, she half-skipped over to fit herself into their little circle, consisting of Alice Jennet, Frank Longbottom, Marlene McKinnon, Benji Fenwick and Dorcas Meadows. Alice was wrapped in her boyfriend's arms with Frank resting his head on top of hers. Marlene was leaning on little Benji and Dorcas stood staring off into space, thoroughly involved in her own little world.

"Hey Lily! How were your last few weeks of summer?" Alice asked, noticing the last member of their group had arrived.

"It was good. I shopped, and I shopped, and I shopped." Lily answered. "And I completely abused the fact that I can use magic any time I want now by having fun with dear Tuney and her beloved fat ass, Vernon." Lily smiled mischievously as she remembered the floating teacups over Petunia's head. "How was your summer?"

Alice smiled widely and glanced up at Frank. "It was wonderful." Frank noticed her tone and his face lit up. Watching them, Lily felt a slight pang of jealously. She had been in a few relationships, but none as pure or as loving as the one her best friends were in.

Smirking Marlene said "So I guess you and Frankie here had a nice time over the summer? Some good quality alone time?" Alice looked down and blushed while Frank grinned. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Aw leave them alone Marley. They're in love." Benji said drawing the last word out.

"Marl is in love?" Dorcas questioned, finally out of her trance.

"Yeah right. This creature ever in love? What are the odds." Benji joked, pushing Marlene off his shoulder.

Lily happily watched her best friends interact for a few more minutes before shoving into Benji, and therefore Marlene who knocked into Dorcas. Frank laughed at the three of them before Alice elbowed him and he fell forward. Laughing, Lily waved a cheerful goodbye to her group before heading off to the Head/Prefect Compartment. While she walked away, she heard Benji and Marlene snickering before Marlene called out, "Have fun with the Head Boy Lilykins!"

She moved quickly between compartments before reaching the first one on the train. Peering in, she already saw a few people had arrived, although most were still missing. There would be six prefects from each house. Two in fifth year, two in sixth year and two in seventh year, although she and her still unknown partner, the head boy, would be in charge of them all. She pulled her head out of the window and took a deep breath. She knew she could do this. She was the smartest girl in her year, she had been a prefect the previous two years and she could handle pressure very well. But she knew she wasn't nervous about facing all the prefects, arranging the schedules, graduation or any other special events. She was worried about the identity of the Head Boy.

There were only five boys who she thought were as smart as she was. Remus Lupin of course, would be an obvious choice. He was sweet, had good grades and had been her fellow prefect the past two years. God she prayed nightly that it was him. Amos Diggory was another boy who could have been it. He was on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and was fourth in school rankings. However, after their messy break-up in the fifth year, he and Lily were still not on good terms.

Sirius Black and James Potter both were extremely intelligent, even though Lily did hate to admit it. She quickly pushed those two out of her thoughts. No. Sirius had done something truly awful the year before, it couldn't be him, and he and James were simply too immature and had broken too many rules in years past. Not to mention, she wouldn't be able to bear working with either. Sirius because of what he had done as well as the fact that he seemed to truly despise her, and Potter, she refused to consider. He apparently felt the exact opposite of what Sirius felt towards her. He had announced on several occasions that he was madly in love with her. She disliked him intensely, despite his apparent reformation and his apology to her the year before. 'Too little, too late for them to form a good working relationship,' Lily thought. The final choice was her former best friend, Severus Snape. She was sure she would quit if it were him.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and walked in. Scanning the room, she saw Remus Lupin in the corner talking to a girl who looked to be the new fifth year prefect for Gryffindor, Amos Diggory flirting loudly with Nicola Broadmort, and Severus Snape, who was staring at her. Reacting quickly, she averted her gaze to look at the new seventh year prefect for Gryffindor, she was pleased to see Katherine Hommis, sitting awkwardly next to Remus.

Lily walked over to her and smiled. "Hi Katherine!"

The petite Asian girl looked up at Lily. "Hello Lily, congratulations on Head Girl."

"And congratulations on prefect."

Gesturing to the space next to her Katherine said "Sit down Lily, tell me about your holiday. It's been so long since we've spoken." Lily sat down and turned her body to face her friend.

"It was nothing special, I mostly hung around the house. Alice, Marlene and Dorcas did come to visit for a few weeks though. How was your summer?"

"I traveled to the United States, to see family we have in New York City."

"Wow that must have been exciting."

"It was."

Lily's curiosity got the better of her and she asked, "Do you know who the Head Boy is?"

Katherine gave her a look of surprise. "Do you not know? I would have thought you'd been told by now. It's all I've heard since getting on the train. I saw Frank congratulating him on my way to the train. I would have stopped and done so also, but I was making sure my younger sister, Jessica, was able to find others her own age." Lily titled her head and looked questionably at her. "James Potter of course. That's why everyone is talking about it. The infamous pairing of James Potter and Lily Evans."

Lily froze and stared flabbergasted at Katherine. She would kill her friends, how could they not warn her. She should have realized by Marlene's comment about having fun with the Head Boy, especially since she used Potter's own nickname for her, Lilykins. She hated that.

As if on cue, James Potter strode into the room, with a grin on his face. "Hello Prefects!"

Everyone in the room turned to look at him, minus Lily. She was busy praying that Dumbledore had tried to send it to Remus while at Potter's house but Potter had mistakenly thought it was his.

"Lilykins, you ready to start?" Pursing her lips Lily stood up and walked over to the front of the room where James stood. Ignoring him for the duration of the meeting, Lily began to go over the rules of being a prefect.

"You will be responsible for helping keep the students in check. This means breaking up and not causing any fights, stopping any parties or other behaviors that become out of control and informing the professors or Head of each misdemeanor you witness. No points may be taken or any detentions assigned by any of you, however if you believe an act merits either of the two please write it on your weekly paperwork. The Head boy and I will review it and decide what the punishment should be. You will each also be responsible for going on nightly rounds twice a week with your partner. McGonagall has prepared the first week's schedule and we will create and post the new one at tomorrow night's meeting. I also ask that the fifth year prefects meet the first years in your house after dinner and escort them to the dormitories. Here are the passwords." She handed them each a slip of paper that had come with her badge, containing the password to their respective houses.

As she continued to speak about their various responsibilities several faces fell and a few new prefects even groaned. "I know it sounds like a lot of work but there are some perks. For example you all have access to the Prefect bathrooms. For those who know it's location already, the password is 'Gillyweed,' fifth years will be shown after the meeting tomorrow. Only Prefects are allowed in this bathroom. Any questions?"

None of the prefects seemed to have any and once Lily dismissed them, they noisily filed out leaving her with James and Remus.

When she walked over to them, the boys halted their hushed conversation. "Hello Lil. How was your break?" Remus asked. She and him had become close friends because of their prefects duties. She knew most of his secrets, including those involving his three best friends; James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

"Wonderful. I'm of age and had fun with Tuney."

"Ah. I see. You're sister still…you know."

"As much as ever." Lily had spent many a night crying to Remus about how Petunia treated her. Remus understood how she felt perfectly. Both of his parents, though he knew they loved him, were afraid of him. It was hard for Lily to believe, but that fact was that Remus was a werewolf. "How was yours?"

"The usual. Spent a lot of time out of the house and with three prats." Remus replied cracking a smile. Lily was about to speak when Remus continued. "I better go make sure two of those prats don't blow up the train." He cocked his head in James' direction. " Oy! Prongs we'll talk at dinner, yeah?" James nodded in response.

Once Remus left, Lily finally acknowledged James, who, aside from announcing his presence at the beginning and a few whispers to Remus, hadn't spoken. "So how did you manage it Potter."

"Honestly, I'm not sure." He shrugged. "I even owled Dumbledore to ask if he meant Remus to get it."

"But why?"

James looked off to the side and began shifting his weight from foot to foot. He lifted his hand and ruffled his hair. It was obvious he was uncomfortable. "I really don't know Lily. He gave me an answer, but it's a secret. I mean, I can't tell anyone."

"Saving Severus?"

James twisted his head towards her so fast she was sure he had snapped his neck. "How…how did you know about that? That slimey bastard told you didn't he? I bet he just wanted to make sure you hated us all more, even Remus."

Ignoring James' last sentence, Lily snapped at him, "Don't call him that."

"Fine. _Snivellus_ told you that? Better?"

"No, it's not. And no, he didn't. You made damn sure we'd never speak again."

James face went from shocked anger to shame in a second. "Lily…I'm sorry. I don't know how many times I can apologize for that."

"You can never apologize for it, and I would prefer you call me Evans. Only friends call each other by first names." Turning on her heel, Lily walked out of the room.

Only after she left did James say, "I wish we were friends."

_Author's Note: Hey guys. I'm back. New chapter. Woo! Let me know what you think? I hope you do._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

Chapter Three:

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any of the characters, story or the Harry Potter world in general. All of that belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm extremely glad she created it. **

James sighed once Lily had left. He couldn't believe how much he had messed up with her. He tortured her with pranks when they were younger until he realized how beautiful she was. Once he discovered that, he asked her out almost daily, and always acted like an arrogant son of a bitch around her, trying to impress her. He'd caused her to lose her first wizard friend, kept most of the boys at Hogwarts from asking her out and when he first discovered he liked her, she'd been with Amos Diggory. Of course he made sure that ended quickly. He hadn't ever done one thing right by her. He wasn't entirely sure why it was that he had ruined things so thoroughly with the one girl he could picture being with forever.

Shuffling his feet, James meandered back to his compartment. He opened the door and was enveloped into a cloud of smoke.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" James coughed out. He covered his mouth with one hand and used the other to wave his hand around and whispered a spell. He had spent the summer mastering simple wandless magic hoping to impress Lily.

The smoke cleared to reveal Remus and Sirius on opposite sides of an Exploding Snap game smiling up at James, while Peter snickered off to the side. Remus was missing a good portion of his sandy brown hair while Sirius' hair remained untouched. His eyebrows on the other hand had been burned off.

"Hey Jamie-poo. Wanna play a game?" Sirius asked his best friend.

"I'd rather not." James sat down beside Peter and waving his hand again, restored his friends' good looks.

"Thanks Prongs." Remus said.

"No problem." Tilting his head to the side to look at Peter, James said "So Pete, we've hardly seen you outside of the full moons this summer. How've you been?"

Peter stuttered slightly "G-g-good."

A wave of concern washed over Remus' face. "You okay Pete?"

"Yeah, a little cold in here."

"All right."

"So Prongsie, what's our first Marauder act of the year gonna be?" Sirius said grinning. "Spike the pumpkin juice, make stars shoot around the room, write on all the teachers' robes…?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Padfoot I'm Head Boy now. I can't pull that stuff anymore."

Scowling Sirius replied, "Or are you pussy whipped and still trying to impress Evans?"

"Remus and I may have talked about how behaving might impress her…"

"Prongs mate, nothing will impress that bitch." Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"Don't call her that." James snapped, glaring at his best friend.

"Why the hell not?"

"Just because."

"Seriously James, why?"

Remus finally spoke up. "Because she's a close friend of mine and James likes her."

"Yeah but Moony, you can't actually believe by making Prongs stop the pranks, Evans will suddenly fall head over heels for him." Sirius scoffed. "She didn't even change her damn attitude when you told her—"

"Sirius shut up. At least let him try for a few months."

"What'd you tell her?" James asked curiously.

"Nothing." Remus responded.

"Remus what'd you tell her?"

Remus sighed and massaged his temples with his fingertips. "It's between Lily and me and can we change the subject? I'm getting a headache from you guys."

"When don't they give you a headache?" Peter asked.

The four boys took a couple deep breaths before beginning to laugh. Any argument, they'd ever had, save one the previous year, had ended with them laughing and forgetting about the fight completely.

Sirius rose to his feet and giving a grin said, "Well boys, I'm off to go catch up with the fine Joscelind Wadcock. Finish the summer with a bang." Winking with the last word, Sirius strut out of the compartment.

James stuck his head out the door and called after him, "If you two end up fighting on the field, I'll cut you both from the team!"

"I'm sure you'll really cut them both." Peter said sarcastically

"One's your best friend and Josce is probably good enough to go onto professional Quidditch after she graduates." Remus stated.

"I could do it if I wanted to." James mumbled, "I'm the captain."

Remus and Peter both just laughed.

. . .

As Lily walked back from the meeting, she carefully planned the painful and twisted deaths of each of her friends. Marlene's would probably be the first. However as she found their usual compartment and opened the door, the words 'I'll kill you all' waiting patiently on the tip of her tongue, she felt Benji fly into and knock her over.

Next thing she knew she was lying on her back with Benji smiling down on top of her. "How'd the meeting go Lil?"

"Yeah," Marlene said, appearing hovering just above Benji's left shoulder, "Have a swell time with the amazing Head Boy?"

Scowling Lily said "I hate you" and rolled Benji off of her.

The three of them entered the compartment and took their seats. Frank was sitting in the seat by the window gazing out while Alice slept with her head in his lap. Benji and Marlene sat down across from each other and began a staring contest. Looking around, Lily noticed Dorcas was no where in the compartment.

"Where's Dorcas?" she asked

Marlene replied, "She went to go find her roommates, Emmeline and them. Although who knows. Maybe she's off screwing Black instead."

"Marly! Stop it!"

"Well at least he'd make her focus on the one thing." Benji answered.

"Or he'd make her lose all focus, not to mention consciousness." Marlene continued cheekily. "Once you go Black you never go back."

"Well, you certainly went back for seconds with him…and thirds and fourths…and fifteenths."

"He's damn good at what he does, what can I say. Besides Benji, how many times do you return to Silva for a little pick-me-up in the mornings…and nights? And occasionally afternoons?"

"Well it's just so irresistible. She does that little trick with her mouth that –"

"Benji if you finish that sentence I'll wring your neck." Lily interrupted. "God, it's no wonder you two are related."

"Meh, all four of us are related in some way. That whole pureblood marrying pureblood shit." Benji sighed before smirking, "Are you sure you don't wanna know her tricks? You could use it for late nights studying with your Head Boy."

"I hate you."

"Impossible."

. . .

A few hours later, Lily woke up from a nap. She had played a few rounds of chess against the combined team of Benji and Marlene, ordered her weight in chocolate frogs off the cart and patrolled once each hour all the while successfully avoiding James. But as Frank nudged her awake, she realized that she couldn't avoid him any longer. They had to share the last carriage together, the entire way to the castle.

She and James stood opposite one another, guiding the students onto the horseless carriages. One of the last groups to get on a carriage was that of The Marauders minus James. Lily saw the boys give James a look that distinctively meant something, that she was sure had to do with her, before seeing them turn to her. She smiled at the three of them and received returning ones from Remus and Peter, Sirius on the other hand gave her a dirty look.

After the second to last carriage pulled away, Lily began to get nervous. She hated being alone with James. It wasn't that she feared he would do anything to her, other than annoy her, or that she had butterflies in her stomach from him. Things were uncomfortable between them. He had spent the past six years at Hogwarts going from pranking her because of her best friend to asking her out and causing her to lose said best friend. It had caused her to dislike him so intensely that being alone with him made her uncomfortable and on edge. It also didn't help that she would always catch him staring at her. Not smiling, not being perverted or creepy, he was always just observing her. Relaxing anywhere near James Potter was damn near impossible.

All to soon their carriage stood in front of them and James held out his hand to help her up. Surprised by his chivalrous gesture Lily accepted his hand and stepped into the carriage, settling as far in the corner as possible. James followed closely behind, sitting opposite her.

After a few moments, James broke the awkward silence. "I meant what I said. Last year. Before we left."

"I know."

"So can we try?"

"Potter, how many times must I tell you, I'd rather puke out all my organs before dating you."

"No, I don't want to date you."

Lily's head popped up in surprise. "You what?"

"Well I'd love to date you. Being in love with you and all, I guess that's obvious." James half smiled at his own words. "But being friends. We'll be working together a lot this year and I'd really like to be friends with you."

"I don't like you." Lily didn't say it in a bitchy way, more like she would if she were just stating a fact.

"I want you to. Even if you never give me a chance to be with you, I'd like to start over and try and be your friend."

Lily found herself surprised at his maturity and answered "Okay."

James ruffled his unkempt hair and stuck out his hand. "James Potter, Head Boy, Gryffindor."

Still unsure of herself Lily shook his hand. "Lily Evans, Head Girl, Gryffindor."

"It's very nice to meet you Lily. I'm surprised we've never met before, but I'd be lying if I said I'd never heard of you."

"I'm fairly certain I've heard of you also, James." The name felt foreign on her tongue.

His face lit up and a shiver ran down his spine when he heard her say his name. He hadn't heard her speak his name without sarcasm dripping from it in a long time, seemingly almost never.

After what seemed like forever, James realized Lily hadn't taken her hand back. He assumed he must have looked confused or too happy about it because she suddenly realized and pulled her hand back to her side as if his hand were burning hers.

Their conversation was kept to a minimum for the rest of the ride. James politely asked Lily how her holiday was, to which she simply replied that it was good, James also agreed that his was all right. When they got off, James offered his hand to Lily which to she took with a 'Thank you.' These two brief exchanges were the only things to penetrate the silence of their ride.

While walking inside the Great Hall a few paces behind Lily, James thought 'One step forward, two steps backward. Which was worse? When she screamed at me or when she barely spoke to me?'

_Author's Note: Move-in has been hectic and it's been taking awhile to revise a lot of what I've written. Add three science classes and a Shakespeare class on top of that and I've had no time. If you come across my story, let me know what you think. Hopefully I'll get around to another chapter soon._


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